Could my blogs get any later in the day? Of course, the answer is yes. I still have over 4 hours in this Saturday. I don’t really have a good excuse to the tardiness of this blog. Today was the first day that I didn’t go anywhere in months. Months. I know that I confused my poor cat, which couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t jumping out of bed to get ready to go. While part of me thought it might be good to take this day to get a lot done, the other part of me preferred to do not much. I did get a few things done, in between naps (I took two!), including a few Duran related items! First, I hooked up my new blu-ray player in order to be ready for the upcoming release of A Diamond in the Mind. (By the way, I’m sure that Rhonda will either be entertained or horrified that it took me since the end of April to do this task!) The second thing I did was to try to catch up on the news front, the Duran news front, that is! Some of what I found I will be sharing here!
Obviously, part of what I learned about what has been happening in Duranland has to do that upcoming DVD/Blu-Ray release. Apparently, the band announced a digital premiere of it on facebook. The news release can be read completely here. I’ll summarize what I understand about it here by using those fantastic journalistic questions of who, what, when, where, why and how.
Who: Obviously Duran Duran
What: “Duran Duran to stream their latest concert DVD, A Diamond In The Mind with EXCLUSIVE Audio Commentary and LIVE Q&A.” As I understand it, this commentary and Q&A session will be special to this streaming, which I’m sure is done to encourage viewing.
When: July 8th at 2 pm EST
For some people, like me, this would be the first chance to see it and, for others, the DVD will already be available. Again, though, I guess with the additional commentary and Q&A session, the date isn’t so important. I do find it interesting that it is on a Sunday afternoon.
Where: Facebook through some application called Qello.
Is this a case of Duran acknowledging the number of fans on Facebook or a case of them encouraging fans to join facebook? Both? No matter, I find it interesting that they are once again acknowledging social networking like they did with the youtube streaming of the show directed by David Lynch last spring.
How: This application, Qello, will cost $4.99 for a 30 day all access membership.
I know nothing about this app, but it appears to be new based on this quote from the news release: “The program launches June 18th with several weeks of festivities on the Duran Duran Facebook page, including Digital Premiere ticketing, and VIP Ticket and CD giveaways. To promote the Premiere, and make the experience more social, fans that post about the event via Facebook will gain access to a special sneak preview.”
Will this $4.99 be worth it? Is it lame that they are charging money for this streaming? Like many other things related to Duran, I find myself assuming that I will be purchasing this app in order to watch, assuming that I can figure out what to do when the time comes! I’m such a sucker!
Now, if all of that didn’t get you excited for ADITM, my friend, Faby, found a lovely, lengthy preview on youtube, which I will now share with all of you after she shared with me:
Of course, beyond ADITM, there have been TV and radio appearances. I am focusing here on the TV appearances because I haven’t been able to find many (most) of the radio interviews. If you know where to find them, please post the link for me and everyone else! Thanks! As for the TV appearances, I know that Simon appeared on Loose Women in the UK. I also read about appearances on Sky Sunrise, ITV Daybreak and CNN. Again, I completely suck because the only one I could find was Loose Women, which I have included below.
My reaction to this clip was that it was enjoyable despite being like every other interview on TV with the list of successes in the beginning and the video montage, which, of course, included Rio! I’m not sure what the deal was with the bananas but I like seeing the silly side of Simon! On a more serious note, one comment I found interesting was when Simon stressed that the band only focused on the songs and not the videos, back in the day. Of course, I think that they focused on the music more but following that statement up with the intelligence of the managers imply that the managers did everything with the video. I always had the impression that the band gave input to the videos. Am I wrong? Also, on a serious note, I loved the statement about how ADITM was a celebration of being able to sing again. On a personal level, the UK tour felt like a celebration for me, too!
Now that my blu-ray player is hooked up, I have seen that long preview, and had Simon describe ADITM as a celebration, I’m really ready to see it!!! I can’t be the only one, right? Right????
-A